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Senin, 23 September 2019

Snap Detailed Facebook’s Aggressive Tactics in ‘Project Voldemort’ Dossier - The Wall Street Journal

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in Half Moon Bay, Calif., in February. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

Georgia Wells and

Georgia Wells

The Wall Street Journal

Biography
@georgia_wells
georgia.e.wells
georgia.wells@wsj.com

Deepa Seetharaman

The Wall Street Journal

Biography
@dseetharaman
deepa.seetharaman
deepa.seetharaman@wsj.com

Sept. 23, 2019 7:00 am ET

Facebook Inc. FB -0.11% for most of the past decade was Silicon Valley’s 800-pound gorilla, squashing rivals, ripping off their best ideas or buying them outright as it cemented its dominance of social media.

Now the knives are coming out.

A number of Facebook’s current and former competitors are talking about the company’s hardball tactics to investigators from the Federal Trade Commission, as part of its broader antitrust investigation into the social-media giant’s business practices, according to people familiar with the matter.

One of them is Snap Inc., SNAP 0.95% where the legal team for years kept a dossier of the ways Facebook was trying to thwart competition from the buzzy upstart, according to people familiar with the matter. The title of the documents: Project Voldemort.

The files in Voldemort, a reference to the fictional antagonist in the popular Harry Potter children’s books, chronicled Facebook’s moves that threatened to undermine Snap’s business, including discouraging popular account holders, or influencers, from referencing Snap on their Instagram accounts, according to people familiar with the project. Executives also suspected Instagram was preventing Snap content from trending on its app, the people said.

In recent months, the FTC has made contact with dozens of tech executives and app developers, people familiar with the outreach said. The agency’s investigators are also talking to executives from startups that became defunct after losing access to Facebook’s platform in addition to founders who sold their companies to Facebook, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in Washington on Sept. 19. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The discussions have focused on the growth-at-all-costs tactics that propelled Facebook from a social network for college students 15 years ago to a collection of services now used by more than one in four people in the world every day.

The talks show that the FTC is “putting together a picture of what might be a pattern of behavior to prevent competition to the core Facebook business,” said Gene Kimmelman, a senior adviser at Public Knowledge, a consumer group that focuses on tech issues who was a Justice Department antitrust official in the Obama administration. Discussions with rivals are typical in antitrust probes, he said.

Inside Facebook, senior leaders are concerned about the possibility of rivals divulging damaging information to federal officials and have discussed ways to improve the company’s relationships around Silicon Valley, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The FTC investigation is one of several antitrust probes into Facebook and major tech giants in the U.S. and around the world. Earlier this month, the House Judiciary Committee requested Facebook executive communications about the company’s decisions to buy the photo- and video-sharing network Instagram in 2012 and the messaging app WhatsApp in 2014. Lawmakers have contacted several of those companies’ rivals as part of that probe, the Journal reported previously.

The House panel can’t take enforcement actions against the companies. The FTC, however, can.

Related: How the Microsoft Antitrust Case Paved the Way for Big Tech

The Department of Justice is investigating the largest American tech firms for alleged monopolistic behavior. Roughly 20 years ago, a similar case threatened to destabilize Microsoft. WSJ explains.

One area of focus for the FTC is Onavo, an Israeli mobile-analytics startup that Facebook purchased in 2013. Onavo offered a free mobile app that described itself as a way to “keep you and your data safe” by creating a virtual private network. To do this, the company redirected internet traffic on Onavo to Facebook’s servers, which allowed it to log every action in a central database.

That enabled Facebook to quietly track what users did on their phones, including which apps they used and for how long, the Journal reported in 2017. Onavo data was frequently cited in internal research and strategy decks, according to former employees and internal documents, and helped inform Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014. Facebook shut down the Onavo app earlier this year amid growing scrutiny of its data-collection practices.

Snap was founded in 2011, when Facebook was already the dominant player in social media. It quickly became a social-media hit after its Snapchat messaging app took off among young people. At one point, Facebook—through Onavo—was able to see Snap data as specific as the number of messages a user sent or how much time those users spent in specific Snapchat features, the former employees said. Facebook couldn’t see the content of the messages or images. The visibility into Snap usage lessened considerably after Snap encrypted its app traffic.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the app was similar to other industry market research tools.

Related Coverage

Another focus of the investigation is whether Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired or tried to buy startups that he feared would later become competitors, according to people familiar with the investigation. In some cases, after Facebook’s overtures were spurned, the social-media giant copied features of the former targets.

For example, when Mr. Zuckerberg met with the founders of startups, including Evan Spiegel, chief executive of Snap, and Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare Inc., he presented them with two scenarios: either they accept the price he was offering for their companies, or face Facebook’s efforts to copy their products and make operating more difficult, according to people familiar with the matter. In both cases, after the companies rejected the overtures, Facebook soon after released features that mimicked the products from Snap and Foursquare.

Foursquare in 2014 started shifting from a consumer-focused app to providing location-based tech and data to businesses.

Facebook rolled out a string of products similar to Snap’s most popular features, including stories, filters and stickers. Snap’s growth waned at times, in part due to competition from Instagram, and it now has around 200 million daily users, less than 15% of Facebook’s total. After a rocky patch in 2018 due in part to a botched redesign, Snap is once again adding users and its stock has rebounded. Snap has also managed to attract more young users between the ages of 13 and 34 in the U.S. than Facebook and Instagram.

The Facebook spokeswoman said consumers gain more choices when two companies offer similar services and features.

“This is competition at work and one of the longtime hallmarks of the tech sector,” she said. “Businesses continually build and iterate on concepts and ideas in the marketplace—making them better or taking them in different directions. This is good for consumers.”

Externally, Snap has often addressed the tension with humor. After Snap launched filters tied to specific regions, in 2014, it created one that only appeared for Snap users at Facebook’s headquarters. The filter showed an image of Snap’s ghost logo laughing, pointing at the user, presumably an employee of Facebook.

A major point of frustration for Snap executives was the belief that Facebook was preventing Snap’s most popular content from trending on Instagram, which they considered to be an abuse of monopoly power. When users uploaded to Instagram videos and images of Snap’s most popular lenses—such as people vomiting rainbows and wearing bunny ears—the users also often included the hashtag #snapchat and the name of the lens.

In the Project Voldemort documents, according to people familiar with them, Snap executives noted their belief that Instagram was blocking searches of these Snap-related terms and not including this content on Instagram’s “explore” page where users discover new content.

Instagram representatives also started pressuring influencers to stop adding Snapchat links to their Instagram profile pages, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Instagram representatives suggested to some influencers that they could potentially void the users’ “verified” status, which signifies that an account is legitimate and popular, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Losing the blue check mark that comes with being verified can undermine an influencer’s ability to secure paid deals, which can range from hundreds to millions of dollars depending on the influencer’s popularity.

In 2016, Instagram added a rule that prevented users from adding links to their Snapchat profiles.

Facebook’s tactics have long engendered concern across Silicon Valley, said Paul Keable, chief strategy officer at Ashley Madison. The dating site, which caters to married people seeking affairs, is blocked from advertising on Facebook, which now operates its own dating feature.

“Facebook has created a scenario where they get to pick and choose who wins based on their personal whims,” Mr. Keable said. “All while running their own competitive products.”

Mr. Keable said he hopes he can work with Facebook to improve its relationship with the dating industry. He said he hasn’t been in touch with regulators but will provide information if asked.

—Emily Glazer and John D. McKinnon contributed to this article.

Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com and Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

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2019-09-23 11:00:00Z
CAIiEGXZ5KKs-0evHRSvtm44iroqGAgEKg8IACoHCAow1tzJATDnyxUwmK20AQ

Top 5 Things to Know in the Market on Monday - Investing.com

Investing.com -- WeWork's CEO and founder Adam Neumann may go the way of Uber's Travis Kalanick, and there's no end in sight to the slowdown in global manufacturing. Here's what you need to know in financial markets on Monday, 23rd September.

1. Softbank looks for the ejector seat button

Softbank, the largest outside shareholder in We Company, is pushing for CEO and founder Adam Neumann to be replaced as chief executive of , the loss-making provider of shared office space.

The Financial Times reported that Softbank had lost patience with Neumann’s erratic behavior and leadership, which has led to delays in the company’s IPO. It added that a board meeting to demote Neumann may take place as early as this week. The move echoes events at Uber Technologies (NYSE:) two years ago, when founder Travis Kalanick was forced out by outside investors.

WeWork aside, it’s set to be a heavy week for IPOs, with exercise bike-maker Peloton also reportedly struggling to drum up interest. ’s Asia deal and European software group TeamViewer are also due in the course of the week.

2. PMIs suggest downturn still continuing

The latest raft of monthly business surveys from around the world suggested no end in sight to the global manufacturing slowdown.

The euro zone’s purchasing managers index fell at its fastest rate in over six years to 50.4, suggesting the economy nearly stalled at the end of the third quarter, according to IHS Markit. in Germany, for years the most reliable source of growth in the region, fell at its fastest since the Great Recession in 2009.

Australia’s also fell below the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. IHS’s U.S. PMI will be released at 9:45 AM ET (1345 GMT).

Outgoing ECB President Mario Draghi is due to address the European Parliament later, although it's widely expected he'll leave any further monetary reaction to his successor, Christine Lagarde.

3. Stocks to open mixed on trade hangover, economic weakness

U.S. stock markets are set to open mixed to lower on follow-through from the sell-off that happened on Friday after the mood music on trade turned slightly more confrontational.

Sentiment over the weekend hasn’t been helped by another rise in oil prices (see below) amid reports that Iran is planning another strike on Saudi oil facilities (the Islamic Republic still denies any involvement in the attacks nine days ago).

By 6:15 AM ET, were down 22 points, or 0.1%, while were flat and were up 0.2%.

Risk aversion appears to have returned to markets, with the U.S. Treasury yield falling to a two-week low of 1.69%, down 4 basis points from Friday’s levels.

4. Oil bounce fades

are vacillating sharply, rising in the wake of the reports about another Iran strike, and gaining further on the back of a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that it may take months to get Saudi Arabia’s oil installations back to fully-functional.

Saudi Arabia pushed back against the report on Monday, saying that production will be restored by the end of next week.

That’s caused crude prices to drop back again to $57.70 a barrel by 6 AM ET, their lowest since the attacks on the Abqaiq processing facility and Kurais oilfield.

On Friday, data from had shown the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. fell to its lowest since spring 2017, while the reported that hedge funds had used last week’s spike in prices to reduce long positions, apparently fearful that the economic slowdown will cause a new glut.

5. U.K. Labour to Remain?

The U.K. Labour party is set to throw its weight firmly behind remaining in the EU at the next election.

Reports suggest a motion at Labour’s annual conference today embracing Remain over the objections of leader Jeremy Corbyn will pass. Paradoxically, that may make Brexit more likely rather than less, as it could harden the split between Remain-leaning parties at the next election, which is expected by many before year-end.

The fell against the dollar in early trade in Europe, after further signs of political instability emerged over the weekend with a report that Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to disclose large grants of public money made to a close friend and former model while he was Mayor of London.

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2019-09-23 10:33:00Z
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Tour company Thomas Cook collapses, 150,000 people stranded - USA TODAY

Gregory Katz Associated Press

Published 3:25 AM EDT Sep 23, 2019

LONDON – British tour company Thomas Cook collapsed early Monday after failing to secure emergency funding, leaving tens of thousands of vacationers stranded abroad.

The British government said the return of the 178-year-old firm’s 150,000 British customers now in vacation spots across the globe would be the largest repatriation in its peacetime history. The process began Monday and officials warned that delays are inevitable.

The Civil Aviation Authority said Thomas Cook has ceased trading, its four airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the U.K., will lose their jobs. The company several months ago had blamed a slowdown in bookings because of Brexit uncertainty for contributing to its crushing debt burden.

The company had said Friday it was seeking 200 million pounds ($250 million) to avoid going bust and was in weekend talks with shareholders and creditors to stave off failure. The firm, whose airliners were a familiar sight in many parts of the world, also operated around 600 U.K. travel stores.

The company’s chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, said in a statement read outside the company’s offices Monday morning that he deeply regrets the shutdown.

“Despite huge efforts over a number of months and further intense negotiations in recent days we have not been able to secure a deal to save our business,” he said. “I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption.”

Britain’s CAA said it had arranged an aircraft fleet for the complex British repatriation effort, which is expected to last two weeks.

More: Captain spilled coffee on plane control panel, had to divert transatlantic flight, report says

“Due to the significant scale of the situation, some disruption is inevitable, but the Civil Aviation Authority will endeavor to get people home as close as possible to their planned dates,” the aviation authority said in a statement.

Describing the repatriation plan, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said dozens of charter planes, from as far afield as Malaysia, had been hired to fly customers home free of charge. He said hundreds of people were staffing call centers and airport operations centers.

“The task is enormous, the biggest peacetime repatriation in U.K. history. So there are bound to be problems and delays,” he said.

British travel expert Simon Calder told Sky News that Thomas Cook’s problems started in 1994 when the “open skies” agreement allowed upstarts easyJet and Ryanair to flourish. At the same time, he said, the internet became widely used for travel bookings, lessening the demand for Thomas Cook’s travel agencies.

“There’s still of course a place for travel professionals, there’s a place for the package already, as companies like Jet2 and TUI are demonstrating, but Thomas Cook was behind the curve and I’m afraid with high costs such as those expensive high street premises they simply couldn’t cope,” he said.

Traveler Lucy Jessop from the eastern city of Hull said she had been scheduled to return from Mexico to Manchester with Thomas Cook on Tuesday and that the government had organized an alternative flight back to England.

She said she was initially worried by the collapse and praised the government’s quick action.

“It’s the employees of Thomas Cook and all those due to go on holiday I feel for,” she said. “We were the lucky ones, I suppose.”

Unions representing the Thomas Cook staff had urged the British government to intervene to prop up Thomas Cook to protect jobs and the traveling public.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government was right not to bail out the company, arguing that travel firms should do more to ensure they don’t collapse.

Johnson said the government would help bring home the stranded British travelers. But he said bailing out the company would have established “a moral hazard” because other firms might later expect the same treatment.

“We need to look at ways in which tour operators one way or another can protect themselves from such bankruptcies in future,” Johnson said. “One is driven to reflect on whether the directors of these companies are properly incentivized to sort such matters out.”

Most of Thomas Cook’s British customers are protected by the government-run travel insurance program, which makes sure vacationers can get home if a British-based tour operator fails while they are abroad.

An earlier repatriation exercise following the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines cost the government about 60 million pounds. The Thomas Cook effort is much larger and likely to be far more costly.

Travelers holding reservations with Thomas Cook were told not to go to the airport because all flights had been canceled.

Thomas Cook, which began in 1841 with a one-day train excursion in England and now operates in 16 countries, has been struggling over the past few years. It only recently raised 900 million pounds ($1.12 billion), including receiving money from leading Chinese shareholder Fosun.

An estimated 1 million future travelers will find their bookings for upcoming holidays cancelled. They are likely to receive refunds under the terms of the government’s travel insurance plan.

In May, the company reported a debt burden of 1.25 billion pounds and cautioned that political uncertainty related to Britain’s scheduled departure from the European Union at the end of October had hurt demand for summer holiday travel. Heat waves over the past couple of summers in Europe have also led many people to stay at home, while higher fuel and hotel costs have weighed on the travel business.

The company’s troubles were already affecting those traveling under the Thomas Cook banner.

A British vacationer told BBC radio on Sunday that the Les Orangers beach resort in the Tunisian town of Hammamet, near Tunis, demanded that guests who were about to leave pay extra money, for fear it wouldn’t be paid what it is owed by Thomas Cook.

Ryan Farmer said many tourists refused the demand, since they had already paid Thomas Cook, so security guards shut the hotel’s gates and “were not allowing anyone to leave.”

It was like “being held hostage,” said Farmer, who is due to leave Tuesday. He said he would also refuse to pay if the hotel asked him.

The Associated Press called the hotel, as well as the British Embassy in Tunis, but no officials or managers were available for comment.

–––

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in New York contributed to this report.

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2019-09-23 07:23:00Z
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US stocks to start the week higher on reduced trade tensions - Fox Business

U.S. equity futures were indicating a higher open on Monday when trading begins on Wall Street as trade tensions ease.

Dow Industrial futures are 0.1 percent higher, S&P 500 futures are gaining 0.1 percent and Nasdaq futures are adding 0.2 percent.

Optimism increased over the weekend as the U.S. and China referred to last week's talks as "productive" and "constructive."

MORE FROM FOXBUSINESS.COM

A higher-level round of talks is still scheduled to go ahead in October.

Wall Street ended last week with losses, snapping a 3-week winning streak for the S&P 500 after reports emerged that Chinese officials canceled a planned trip to farms in Montana and Nebraska.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	%Chg
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	26935.07	-159.72	-0.59%
SP500	S&P 500	2992.07	-14.72	-0.49%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	8117.674437	-65.20	-0.80%

The S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.8 percent.

In Asian trading on Monday, the Shanghai Composite index closed down 1.1 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.8 percent after yet another weekend of violent protests.Tokyo's markets were closed for a holiday.

Fosun Tourism Group, the biggest shareholder in Thomas Cook, fell 3.8 percent in Hong Kong after the 178-year-old British tour company collapsed.

Bookings for more than 600,000 global vacationers were canceled Monday as a result.

Shanghai-based Fosun International dropped 1 percent.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said Thomas Cook's four airlines would be grounded and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the UK, will lose their jobs.

In Europe, London's FTSE was off 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX was down 1 percent and France's CAC lost 0.7 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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2019-09-23 06:26:47Z
CBMiOmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZveGJ1c2luZXNzLmNvbS9tYXJrZXRzL3VzLXN0b2Nrcy1zZXB0LTIzLTIwMTnSAT5odHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3hidXNpbmVzcy5jb20vbWFya2V0cy91cy1zdG9ja3Mtc2VwdC0yMy0yMDE5LmFtcA

Minggu, 22 September 2019

UK travel giant Thomas Cook faces collapse - msnNOW

It may be the end of a long road

Running out of alternatives to bankruptcy

Thomas Cook's main shareholder appears to have decided that enough is enough

3/3 SLIDES

Thomas Cook's 178-year existence was hanging by a thread on Sunday after the iconic British travel firm struggled to find further private investment and is now relying on an unlikely government bailout.

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The operator said Friday that it needed £200 million ($250 million) -- in addition to the £900-million rescue deal secured last month -- or else face administration, which could leave thousands of holidaymakers stranded and require Britain's largest repatriation since World War II.

A source close to the negotiations told AFP on Saturday that the company had failed to find the £200 million from private investors and would collapse unless the government intervened.

But ministers are unlikely to step in due to worries about the pioneering operator's longer-term viability, the Times reported on Saturday, leaving it on the brink of collapse and stranding up to 150,000 British holidaymakers abroad.

"We will know by tomorrow (Sunday) if agreement is reached," the source told AFP.

Conservative Party minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News on Sunday that it would be "inappropriate" for him to comment on the negotiations, but said that he hoped "they come to a positive conclusion".

The firm's shareholders and creditors were to meet from 9 am (0800 GMT) on Sunday, with a meeting of the board of directors due to be held in the afternoon.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which represents workers at the company, called on the government to rescue the firm.

"It is incumbent upon the government to act if required and save this iconic cornerstone of the British high street and the thousands of jobs that go with it," said TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes.

"The company must be rescued no matter what."

Two years ago, the collapse of Monarch Airlines prompted the British government to take emergency action to return 110,000 stranded passengers, costing taxpayers some £60 million on hiring planes.

The government at the time described it as Britain's "biggest-ever peacetime repatriation".

- Jobs threatened -

Thousands of workers could also lose their jobs, with the company employing about 22,000 staff worldwide, including 9,000 in Britain.

Chinese peer Fosun, which was already the biggest shareholder in Thomas Cook, agreed last month to inject £450 million into the business.

In return, the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate acquired a 75 percent stake in Thomas Cook's tour operating division and 25 percent of its airline unit.

Thomas Cook in May revealed that first-half losses widened on a major write-down, caused in part by Brexit uncertainty that delayed summer holiday bookings. The group, which has around 600 stores across the UK, has also come under pressure from fierce online competition.

Cabinet maker Thomas Cook created the travel firm in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by train between British cities.

It soon began arranging foreign trips, being the first operator to take British travellers on escorted visits to Europe in 1855, to the United States in 1866 and on a round-the-world trips in 1872.

The company was also a pioneer in introducing "circular note" -- products that would later become traveller's cheques.

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2019-09-22 10:00:00Z
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Travel group Thomas Cook battles for survival with final creditor meeting - Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Bosses at Britain’s Thomas Cook (TCG.L) were meeting lenders and creditors on Sunday to decide whether the world’s oldest travel company could survive until Monday, or face a chaotic collapse that would be felt around the world.

FILE PHOTO: The Thomas Cook logo is seen in this illustration photo January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo

Running hotels and resorts, airlines and cruises, Thomas Cook has 600,000 customers on holiday, meaning governments and insurance companies could be forced to step in and bring them home if the company goes into administration.

The management team, led by Peter Fankhauser, was meeting banks and bondholders at a London law firm on Sunday morning before a board meeting in the early evening to determine whether it can continue.

The company, founded in 1841, has been fighting for its survival after its lenders threatened to pull the plug on a rescue deal that has been months in the making.

Hurt by high levels of debt, online competition and geopolitical uncertainty, Thomas Cook needs to find another 200 million pounds ($250 million) on top of a 900 million pound package it had already agreed, to see it through the winter months when it needs to pay hotels for their summer services.

A person familiar with the situation told Reuters the company was spending the weekend in talks with the government and a number of potential investors about bridging the funding gap. “We have not given up,” the person said on Saturday, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Were Thomas Cook to fail, it would spark the biggest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.

The government and the aviation regulator have drawn up a plan to step in and use other airlines to bring Britons home if needed. In Germany, where some 300,000 are abroad with the operator, it will fall to their insurance companies to help get them home.

The news has sparked alarm not just across the holiday resorts and poolside bars where customers are taking to social media for updates, but to the company’s suppliers and future customers who are losing faith in the firm.

That is draining the company of the liquidity it needs to keep operating and ramping up the pressure on one of Britain’s oldest and much-loved companies.

“Hi Annie, I understand your father might be unsettled by all the news surrounding Thomas Cook and our business recently but our flight operations continue to operate as normal,” the company said in response to one worried customer.

British foreign minister Dominic Raab sought to reassure holidaymakers that they would not end up stuck overseas.

“We .... hope that it (Thomas Cook) can continue but in any event, as you would expect, we’ve got the contingency planning in place to make sure that in any worst-case scenario we can support all those who might otherwise be stranded,” Raab told the BBC.

At the board meeting, the company will have to decide whether in the short term it has enough cash to pay its ongoing requirements, and whether it has a reasonable prospect of paying its liabilities in six to 12 months’ time, which is predicated on it securing a deal.

At the earlier meeting the lenders will have to decide whether they want to continue supporting a company that has 19 million customers a year in 16 countries.

It is battling a debt pile of 1.7 billion pounds and can be knocked off course by events such as a coup in Turkey, a heatwave in Europe and the aggressive summer pricing of low-cost airlines like Ryanair.

Reporting by Kate Holton; Additional reporting by William James and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Dale Hudson

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-09-22 09:44:00Z
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UK travel firm Thomas Cook holds talks to avoid a collapse - Stuff.co.nz

Thomas Cook, one of the world's oldest and largest travel companies, is holding talks with shareholders in a last-ditch bid to avoid going bankrupt.

A collapse could leave around 150,000 travellers from Britain stranded, along with tens of thousands of travellers from other countries. The British government may have to lease planes to get its citizens home.

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Thomas Cook needs NZ$398 million in extra funding to avoid a collapse.

Sunday's meeting, first reported by Sky News, is taking place at the London-based law firm Slaughter & May. Officials from Thomas Cook were not available for comment.

Thomas Cook confirmed on Friday it was seeking £200 million (NZ$398 million) in extra funding to avoid a collapse. It said it was in talks with stakeholders such as the Chinese shareholder Fosun.

Unions have urged the British government to intervene financially to save jobs if the company cannot raise the necessary funds.

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2019-09-22 09:31:00Z
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